My husband and I are in the process of moving from three full levels into a one-level apartment. Boy! Talk about down sizing!

But since it is my turn to write for the Clergy View, and I appreciate the opportunity, I am sitting at my computer amid boxes that need to be emptied and my mind filled to overflowing with the myriad of tasks that need to be completed.

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I have to stop, relax and look at what is important to me today. I will start with a story:

I was in the grocery store a few days ago and asked a clerk where the apples were located. She told me I would find them in the produce section and then she proceeded to escort me to big bins of bright red, golden and green apples.

I told her I wanted the apples that had thick orange colored skins that you could peel with your fingers, they were filled with sections of little juice filled “sacks.”

She looked bewildered and told me that sounded like an orange.

I told her that all apples did not have to look the same, that she sounded like she was discriminating against the “orange” that wanted the same “rights” as the apple. We must be tolerant of all kinds of fruits.

No, she told me, an apple has certain characteristics and an orange has other characteristics. “Whoever heard of Waldorf salad or apple pie made with oranges?” After bantering back and forth she looked me in the eye and said, “Well, you can call it what you want, but an orange is still an orange!” And this hypothetical clerk in this strange little parable turned and walked away.

Seems in our world we are still trying to call oranges apples.

I am thinking of the opportunity we have as voting citizens in Minnesota to continue to hold marriage in high esteem based on the definition God gave marriage in Genesis 2:24 when He said, “…a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.”

From the beginning marriage has been what marriage is. If we want to legalize other forms of relationships, that is another issue, but to redefine marriage seems like redefining the common orange.

By voting “yes” for the Marriage Amendment in the November election we are using this opportunity to hold fast our values that have made America great.

Be sure to read the question and make sure you are, in fact, voting in favor of the amendment.